ADVISE AND CONSENT (1962)

Political movies (that is, movies explicitly about some aspect of the American political scene) had a heyday of sorts in the early 60's--think of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, THE BEST MAN, SEVEN DAYS IN MAY, and FAIL SAFE. This one is often touted as the most realistic one of the bunch, and as much of it was filmed at actual Washington settings, it certainly looks real. The atmosphere put me in mind of a Senate version of "The West Wing." Apparently many of the situations and characters are based on real events and people (despite a big disclaimer at the end of the opening credits), although except for certain similarities to the McCarthy debacle, I couldn't make any one-on-one connections. Despite this (or perhaps because of this), I found the movie to be mostly compelling, if a little tough to parse on occasion. Ailing president Franchot Tone has picked Henry Fonda to be his new Secretary of State. During confirmation hearings in the Senate, it comes out that Fonda may have dabbled in Communism in his youth and powerful Southern senator Charles Laughton leads an effort to block Fonda's appointment. Young hotshot George Grizzard, pissed that he was passed over as chairman of the hearings committee (for young coolheaded Don Murray) makes an aggressive attempt to push Fonda's nomination ahead, and he gets so desperate that he tries to blackmail Murray over a homosexual affair he had in the Navy during the war. That, in a nutshell, is the plot, largely presented as two separate stories which intertwine briefly.

The movie is filled with solid performances: in addition to Laughton (who, in his last movie, chews the scenery in a mostly fun way) and Murray (whose quiet but powerful performance is the polar opposite of Laughton's), there's Burgess Meredith as a neurotic ex-commie called to testify against Fonda, Lew Ayres as the ambitious but realistic vice-president, and Inga Swenson as Murray's in-the-dark wife. Walter Pidgeon, as the Majority Leader, anchors the movie with the best performance I've seen from him, and it's also fun to see people like Paul Ford and Edward Andrews get to stretch a bit. What I liked best about it is that there aren't really good guys and bad guys; even the men who come off the worst are more assholes than evil. Fonda (who, despite being top-billed, practically vanishes for the last hour of the film) is used to great advantage: the audience knows that his persona is that of an good and admirable man, so it's a wonderful shock to realize halfway through that he's not so very admirable after all, though he may still actually be the best man for the job. The gay angle is handled in a way that was quite sensationalistic in its time, but seems tame and quaint now--the glimpse we get of a New York gay bar makes it look quite preppy and not at all decadent and shameful as one might have expected. Otto Preminger's widescreen style is not splashy but it is quietly effective. The movie is a bit long, but it's worth sitting through, especially since the unpretty picture it presents of political wheeling and dealing still seems quite relevant today. [DVD]

THE HOUSE ACROSS THE STREET (1949)

The title of this movie refers to the tense, noir-like opening scene in which a key witness in a corruption trial is murdered at his home, despite being under police surveillance. After this promising opening, the tone lightens up considerably as we focus on crusading reporter Wayne Morris, who blows his muck-racking story on mobster Bruce Bennett; the mobster threatens the paper with a libel suit and Morris is re-assigned to the lovelorn column. Coincidentally, it is through a visit from a lovelorn letter writer (Barbara Bates) that Morris gets on the right track and is able to find real evidence to bring Bennett down. This is based on a 30's movie (HI, NELLIE) which Warners remade in the late 30's as LOVE IS ON THE AIR with Ronald Reagan, and again in the early 40's as YOU CAN'T ESCAPE FOREVER. I'm not sure the material is strong enough to warrant a fourth version, but it's a pleasant little film. Morris does a nice job with one of his rare leading roles, Janis Paige is good as his gal, and there are good performances from Alan Hale as the newspaper owner, James Mitchell as a goon for the mobster, and James Holden as Bates's boyfriend who winds up breaking the case for Morris. I think the '42 version with George Brent and Brenda Marshall is more fun. [TCM]

FOOLS FOR SCANDAL (1938)

I'm not a Carole Lombard fan, and this movie didn't convert me, but watching it was a pleasant way to spend a Sunday morning. It's basically a screwball comedy played at a relatively slow pace. Lombard is an American movie actress who is in Paris in disguise for the weekend with her boyfriend, insurance agent Ralph Bellamy (playing another in a long line of patsy stooges who exist as easy targets for the *real* romantic hero to knock down). She meets cute with down-on-his-luck French nobleman Fernand Gravet--maybe I missed something, but I never did figure out why he was so poor when all of Paris seemed to know him, and he was apparently a hell of a chef. They go through the usual on-again, off-again romantic shenanigans of this kind of movie until they wind up together at the end. Gravet was good, though he had an odd accent for a Frenchman: a little French, a little New York. At times, he sounded like Cary Grant. Allen Jenkins does his usual fine job as comic sidekick, and Marie Wilson is just as good, though in a role too small for her to shine. There's a big Noah's Ark costume ball where all the participants wear animal masks, and this leads to a cute payoff scene later when, with dozens of reporters camped out in Lombard's bedroom, Gravet serves her breakfast with a pig mask on. The scene toward the end where the lovers finally sort out their feelings goes on too long, but the very last shot, of the couple kissing onstage in the middle of an opera performance, was nice. There's a musical number in a nightclub called "Petit Harlem," and Lombard and Gravet do a little sing-songy thing halfway through that's like a musical number which no one had the heart to finish. Recommended, if not enthusiastically. [TCM]

SENSO (1954)

This early Luchino Visconti movie is renowned for its beautiful Technicolor look, but the print shown on Turner Classic Movies was washed out, dirty, and in need of restoration. Host Robert Osborne did helpfully set up the historical context for the narrative, set in the 1860's. Austria has occupied Venice and tensions between the Austrian soldiers and the occupied citizens are brewing. Alida Valli is an Italian countess whose cousin is an agitator in an underground movement to get rid of the Austrians. During a political demonstration which breaks out at an opera house during a performance of Il Travatore, she falls for an Austrian soldier (Farley Granger). Even though he is the enemy, and she is married, she pursues him and they have a passionate affair. As the possibility of war increases, Valli gives Granger money so he can bribe his way out of the army, but he then uses some of the money to shack up with a whore. Valli finds out and, already on the verge of a nervous breakdown, snaps and betrays him to his commander. He is killed by firing squad and she wanders the streets, distraught. This material has potential, but for the first hour or so, it's sluggishly paced and drawn out, without really bringing the characters to life. In the last half, things get more interesting as Visconti goes into an almost operatic mode of melodrama and the pace picks up nicely. Granger is OK, although the fact that his Italian dialogue is dubbed by someone else is a little distracting. Valli is excellent as the woman who loses her stability in a lusty affair. Toward the end, when she catches a dissipated Granger cheating on her, she is superb, and the whole thing was worth watching for that scene. I really wish they had been able to show a restored version, because I'm sure the original color print was lovely. [TCM]

THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN (1936)

If Hitchcock rather than Josef van Sternberg had directed the Marlene Dietrich melodrama SHANGHAI EXPRESS, this might have been the result. There is a lot of attention to camerawork, shadows, and close-ups of faces in the directing style of Lewis Milestone, but there is also a Hitchcockian atmosphere (as in THE LADY VANISHES and THE 39 STEPS) in the tale of a man and woman falling in love as they get in and out of spy troubles. Gary Cooper is an American mercenary in China who is trying to help Mr. Wu (Dudley Digges) buy weapons to give to a peasant army to fight heinous warlord Yang (Akim Tamiroff). Cooper takes a train to Shanghai with a belt full of money intended for Digges, but sickly American Porter Hall and his lovely daughter, the incongruously British Madeleine Carroll (a Hitchcock heroine in 39 STEPS), working for Tamiroff, betray Cooper. Hall goes to Shanghai with the money to complete a deal for Tamiroff with drunken arms dealer William Frawley but Cooper manages to throw some monkey wrenches into the warlord's plans, sometimes with and sometimes without the help of Carroll. The narrative is plot-heavy, and some loopholes emerge (Did Cooper and Carroll know each other before their China days? Why did Tamiroff send the clearly ineffective Hall to finish the financial transaction for the weapons?), but the twists and turns keep things moving quickly to a very atmospheric finale involving a scene of mass suicide, quite explicit for a 30's Code movie.

There is much romance and humor amongst the spy-thriller trappings. Cooper and Carroll make a great couple; he was at the height of his comeliness and we get to see him bare-chested, displaying his lithe physique, twice (Carroll remains fully clothed, though her close-ups are fetching). Tamiroff got an Oscar nomination and he is good at giving a new twist to the Hollywood stereotype of the inscrutable and sinister Oriental. Whenever he appears, he always makes a grand entrance, with his own little musical theme bursting out of the soundtrack--this becomes a nice bit of black comedy as the movie goes along. Korean-American actor Philip Ahn, known much later as Master Kan in the TV show "Kung Fu," shows up in a small role as Tamiroff's second-in-command. Hall, usually known for his comic portrayals of cowards or bureaucrats, stands out in this more serious part. Frawley, who will always be first and foremost Fred Mertz, is practically a revelation as the constantly drunken "ugly American," always seeming on the verge of passing out as he sings, "I'll be glad when you're dead, you rascal you" to no one in particular; at first, he seems just a comic relief character, but he plays a crucial and violent role in the climax. Irish character actor J.M. Kerrigan has a nice turn as an amoral agent whose loyalty seems to be constantly shifting--his ultimate reward is quite satisfying. Also in the film are Leonid Kinskey (CASABLANCA'S bartender) and writer John O'Hara in what I assume is an in-joke cameo as an opportunistic reporter. A fun movie, which has been rendered excellently on DVD in Universal's wonderful Gary Cooper collection (5 great films, none previously available on DVD) on 2 discs for a very reasonable price. [DVD]

BATTLEGROUND (1949)

This has a reputation as one of the best war movies of its era. Though it's not as gritty as THE STORY OF G.I. JOE (an earlier film from the same director, William Wellman), it is compelling both in its first hour as a character-driven narrative about tense soldiers waiting for action, and in its second hour as a full-out battle film. Based on an actual event, the episodic narrative is centered on a division of American soldiers stuck near the village of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. (The credit sequence ends by referring to the film as the story of the "Battered Bastards of Bastogne.") As the film opens, in early December, 1944, the men of the 101st Airborne Division are looking forward to some R&R in Paris, but instead are sent to Bastogne to help fight a German offensive. Among the men are smiling everyman Van Johnson, farmboy Jerome Courtland (who always takes off his boots to sleep and is constantly uttering the phrase, "That's for sure, that's for dang sure!"), an older guy nicknamed "Pops" (George Murphy) who is anxiously waiting for his discharge, and other "types" (Latino Ricardo Montalban, intellectual journalist John Hodiak, easy-going Don Taylor). The story unfolds more or less through the viewpoint of a new replacement (Marshall Thompson) who goes from sensitive guy upset at being separated from his buddy to battle-hardened soldier (symbolized largely by him taking up smoking). Most of their time early on is spent in "hurry up and wait" mode, and there is a nice interlude in the village involving Johnson flirting with a young woman (Denise Darcel). Once they get to the Ardennes woods, there is a lovely moment as they wake up in their foxholes covered with snow, but from there on, the situation turns tense after they let a group of Germans disguised as American soldiers past them and soon realize they are surrounded with little hope for reinforcement. The action scenes in the last 45 minutes are well done and surprisingly do not suffer for being studio-bound (the snowy forest is done so well, I was sure they must have filmed in some northern locale, but the entire movie was shot at the MGM studio, with occasional newsreel bits spliced in here and there). Some characters die (not always the ones you assume will), but most make it through, if a little sadder and tougher. The movie may not seem especially realistic compared to some of the war films that came in the 1950s, but because the makers didn't have to worry about highlighting flagwaving propaganda messages, the focus on character and the everyday details of the WWII soldier make this stand out head and shoulders above most other war films of the era. [DVD]

REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM (1938)

I suspect the well was running dry for Shirley Temple vehicles by this time--this was her 18th starring role in four years. Temple is fine, as are most of the other actors, but the plot is rather threadbare. Temple plays an 8-year-old in the custody of her stepfather, a washed-up vaudevillian (William Demerest). He makes her audition for a radio contest search for Little Miss America and she wins the title, but Demerest, thinking that she lost, leaves the station and, giving up on Temple's potential as a meal ticket, takes her out to her Aunt Miranda's place in the country and leaves her with the stern old lady (Helen Westley). As it happens, the radio executive responsible for the contest (Randolph Scott) has a country place right next to Westley's. It also happens that Westley has a lovely young niece (Gloria Stuart) living with her who soon grows smitten with Scott. Furthermore, Scott's assistant (Jack Haley), who auditioned Temple, just happens to hear the little girl singing one day, puts two and two together, and the next thing you know, everyone's in cahoots plotting to get Temple to sing for the radio show behind the back of the disapproving aunt. Then, after the aunt rather suddenly thaws and lets Temple sing, Demerest comes around with a court order letting him take custody of Temple. How on earth will it all work out? The actors are all fine, especially Westley. Phyllis Brooks plays a singer who becomes a rival for Stuart; Franklin Pangborn has a funny bit as an "emergency organist" at the radio station who faints when he finally gets a chance to fill in on the air; Bill Robinson has a thankless role as a house servant who ends up dancing on stage with Temple in the underdone finale. In a bizarre self-referential twist, Temple, who is supposed to be a complete unknown, sings a medley of songs that she supposedly introduced to the radio public--of course, it's a medley of Temple hits such as "Good Ship Lollipop" and "Animal Crackers in My Soup." Best line: Haley, flirting with Brooks: "Couldn't you go for a guy like me?"; Brooks: "Yeah, with an axe!" [FMC]

WITHIN THE LAW (1939)

This is an MGM B-movie remake of a 1930 Joan Crawford vehicle, PAID, and even though I haven't seen the original, this still felt like a rehash of familiar material. However, an interesting cast makes it worth watching. Ruth Hussey is a shopgirl who is accused of shoplifting jewels from the store she works for. We know that the person who did it was about to be caught and dumped the jewels in Hussey's locker. But big boss Samuel S. Hinds is tired of being soft on shoplifters so he prosecutes Hussey to the fullest extent of the law, despite her claims of innocence. She gets thrown in jail and spends her time studying the law, planning to get her revenge in a legal fashion when she gets out. Three years later, she meets up with Rita Johnson, a blackmailer she had become friends with in prison, and winds up being the legal brains of a petty crime gang headed up by Paul Kelly. They set Hinds' department store up to arrest Johnson on charges that they can't make stick, and that's just the beginning of Hussey's revenge, which includes marrying the boss's son (Tom Neal) under false pretenses. However, after a double cross and a declaration of genuine love, Hussey redeems herself, Hinds apologizes for his errors, and even Johnson gets a happy ending. Hussey is fine, but she's upstaged by the sexy, spunky Johnson, perhaps best known as the murdering wife in HERE COMES MR. JORDAN (the role that Dyan Cannon made her own in the 70's remake HEAVEN CAN WAIT). Neal is something of a plastic-looking pretty boy here and isn't terribly effective. The studio may have been grooming him for a persona for which he wasn't suited--he was much better as the tough guy loser in the B-classic DETOUR a few years later. Also notable are William Gargan as a cop and Paul Cavanagh as a double crossing gangster. There is a joking reference to MGM star Myrna Loy and *two* references to their hot property of the same year, GONE WITH THE WIND. [TCM]

PICCADILLY (1929)

This British film from the late silent era is, plotwise, a run-of-the-mill romantic melodrama; it is notable today for two things: the inventive style of German director E.A. Dupont and the performance of Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong. This may have been a career peak for them both: Dupont went on to do mostly B-movies in Hollywood, and Wong's career started on a downward slide three years later after her memorable co-starring role with Marlene Dietrich in SHANGHAI EXPRESS. Wong is third-billed here, but she has the most interesting role. The stars are ostensibly Jameson Thomas, as the owner of the Piccadilly Club, and Gilda Gray, as his dancing star Mabel. The two are carrying on a affair, unbeknownst to her dancing partner, Cyril Ritchard, who has been trying unsuccessfully to woo her. When Ritchard's attentions become overbearing, Thomas fires him, even though he is the stronger draw, and sure enough, business drops. One night, after an irate customer (Charles Laughton in a cameo) complains about a dirty plate, Thomas discovers Wong, a dishwasher, dancing on a table instead of working. He fires her, but finds himself attracted to her, and after a secret "late night audition," he re-hires her to supplement Gray in the floor show. This doesn't sit well with Gray, particularly when she discovers that the two are carrying on behind her back. Another person disturbed by the affair is Jim (King Ho Chang), Wong's lover (she refers to him as her cousin, but it's never made clear if he really is). Things come to a head one night when Gray goes to Wong's apartment with a revolver in her purse. Wong indeed winds up dead, but was the killer Gray? Or Chang? Or maybe Ritchard has come back in the picture?

The opening credits are presented as posters on the sides of double-decker buses, and the movie is filled with creative, fluid cinematography; the camera is constantly winding through the crowds at the club, swinging up and back from the dancers, and surprising us with shots from interesting angles. Wong gives the best performance, though her dancing leaves something to be desired. The relationship between Wong and Chang is unusual; at first, I thought he was coded as gay because, when Thomas and Wong go to a costume shop to find a dancing outfit for the show, Wong makes Chang put it on. We are told they are cousins, though later we assume they are lovers, although even that is not made crystal clear. I enjoyed seeing stage actor Ritchard in one of his rare movie appearances--he is best known for playing Captain Hook in the Mary Martin "Peter Pan." The DVD from Milestone has been restored fairly well, but the new score is irritating; it doesn't sound contemporary to the time of the film, and though it has some nice melodies, they are used too often and sometimes with little regard for the mood of a scene. There is also a strange, static little prologue, shot in sound and presented as an extra, which adds nothing to the story. An interesting if predictable film which should be seen for its unique style. [DVD]

SANTA FE TRAIL (1940)

Despite the title, this isn't really a western, but a historical drama about cavalry men Jeb Stuart (Errol Flynn) and George Custer (Ronald Reagan) and their pursuit of activist abolitionist John Brown (Raymond Massey). All these characters are based on real people, but I must admit I know next to nothing about the Civil War era so I can't judge how accurate the storyline is or how closely the characters hew to the historical figures--knowing Hollywood, I assume little fidelity. We first meet Flynn and Reagan as fresh West Point graduates when they get into a fight with fellow cadet Van Heflin over the abolition movement; Heflin is a follower of John Brown, a religious fanatic who wants the slaves freed immediately even if it involves widespread bloodshed. Heflin is discharged and joins up with Brown; Flynn and Reagan wind up stationed in Kansas, which is split over the issue of whether or not to enter the Union as a slave state. Brown is violently fomenting dissent and the cavalry is trying to keep things under control. Between run-ins with the Brown clan (including son Gene Reynolds, who winds up on Flynn's side) and his followers, there is time for a typical Hollywood romantic triangle with Flynn and Reagan vying for the hand of Olivia de Havilland, daughter of the man who hopes to establish a safe passage to Santa Fe (hence the rather misleading title). There is comic relief with Alan Hale and Guinn Williams as wagon train workers who quite improbably join up with the cavalry. The politics of the situation are handled delicately and therefore confusingly: Brown is portrayed as a crazy killer who, when he is able to free slaves, basically leaves them high and dry, but de Havilland speaks a few words in defense of the man, saying that he has "great and good reasons" for his actions; our heroes aren't allowed to express many political opinions, but do note that abolition must come gradually and peacefully rather than suddenly and violently. In trying to offend no one, the movie muddles its politics and history beyond repair. But taken as a rousing "boy's adventure" movie, it definitely succeeds. Standouts in the large supporting cast include William Lundigan as de Havilland's brother, Henry O'Neill as the father, Ward Bond as an abolitionist, and John Litel as a slaver. The three leads (Flynn, Reagan, and Massey) are fine, but all wind up playing cardboard cut-out versions of historical figures. Given that caveat, I would recommend this to fans of the era's action films. [TCM]

PARACHUTE BATTALION (1941)

Released just a few months before Pearl Harbor, this may have been intended as pro-military propaganda, but it works better as a light buddy comedy in the old Cagney/O'Brien tradition. The film follows three men who join the Army's Parachute Corps in Fort Benning, Georgia: Robert Preston is an Ivy League football star, and Buddy Ebsen is a hayseed farmboy, but the focus is on Edmond O'Brien as a young man on the road to alcoholism who joins to get rid of his self-esteem problem; it turns out he's the estranged son of the Corps' commander (Robert Barrat). The three meet and become friends on a train to Fort Benning, where they also have a run-in with their soon-to-be instructor (Harry Carey) and his daughter (Nancy Kelly). O'Brien and Preston become rivals for the hand of Kelly; Carey, all crusty and hard-boiled on the outside, turns out to be mostly a softie who inspires great loyalty among his charges. Richard Cromwell plays a twitchy coward who goes nuts up in the sky just as he's supposed to make his first jump. O'Brien is instrumental in helping Carey handle the situation, but he's also afraid to jump, so the rest of the movie is about how O'Brien gains self-confidence so he can make the jump, regain his father's respect, and get the girl. The performances are fine (and you can see the seed of Prof. Harold Hill in Preston's cocky character) with Paul Kelly providing strong support as Carey's assistant. Nancy Kelly (no relation) is best known as the neurotic mother in THE BAD SEED. Ebsen is his usual gangly self and gets to do a novelty dance to "Turkey in the Straw." The film was shot partly at Fort Benning, and there is plenty of footage of men from the real battalion in parachute action. An RKO B-movie that's almost up to the standard of Warner Brothers. [TCM]

THE CASINO MURDER CASE (1935)

A slightly better Philo Vance movie than BISHOP. This one has more comedy than most Vance films, which takes some getting used to, but the light tone works. So does the lead performance of Paul Lukas as Vance. Most critics don't like his portrayal, and I agree that his thick Hungarian accent is quite out of place for the New York City playboy that Vance is supposed to be, but he fleshes out the part better than Rathbone did, though he's no William Powell. This time around, Vance is called in to help protect wealthy Donald Cook, who is threatened by letter with death that night if he goes to the family casino. He goes and, despite protection, is poisoned but recovers. However, his wife, an old friend of Vance's who is unhappy in her marriage, is poisoned at the house and dies. There are other deaths and the discovery of suspicious experiments with "heavy water" before Vance solves the case. The supporting cast includes Rosalind Russell, secretary for the family, who becomes both a sidekick and a mild romantic interest for Vance; Alison Skipworth as the family matriarch; Eric Blore as Vance's befuddled butler. Ted Healy does a fine comic turn as a policeman who is always one step behind Vance, and Louise Fazenda and Leo G. Carroll as the maid and butler make positive impressions in their brief time on screen. [TCM]

THE BISHOP MURDER CASE (1930)

The detective Philo Vance, created by writer S. S. Van Dine, was featured in over a dozen movies from the late 20's through the 40's, but he seems to be the sleuth that time forgot, maybe because so many actors played him with such a wide range of approaches that there was not a consistent portrayal in the public mind. He's a little like the Falcon or Nick Charles (and William Powell did play him early in his career) in that he's a rich man who helps the police track down killers, but no "hook" ever developed (like the Falcon's jewel thief past or Nick's wife Nora) to make him stand out. Nevertheless, many of the Vance movies are fun--though none that I've seen are as good as the books. This one has a fascinating set-up: people who live in the neighborhood of the Dillards are getting bumped off in ways that suggest that nursery rhymes are the inspiration for the dastardly deeds (a young man nicknamed Cock Robin is killed by an arrow and a man dies due to a fall from a wall like Humpty Dumpty), and the killer leaves clues in a series of notes signed The Bishop--is he a religious fanatic or a chess enthusiast? The plot is intriguing and fairly easy to follow, and sticks close to the book. The supporting cast is OK (with Roland Young as the chief suspect and Leila Hyams as the attractive young damsel who winds up in distress) and the directing style is occasionally interesting, especially the presentation of one murder which involves the toppling of a house of cards. However, Basil Rathbone is rather bland as Vance. This may be largely the fault of the writers, but Rathbone doesn't help by sleepwalking through the proceedings. Ironically, Vance is compared at least once in the movie to Sherlock Holmes, the role that Rathbone would make his own a few years later. There are separate credits for "screen direction" and "stage direction" which may explain why the moody non-dialogue scenes work best. The lack of background music doesn't help the static feel of the movie's pace, though the silence is sometimes effective. You will probably guess who the killer is, but the way he meets his fate is surprising. Other Vance movies I've reviewed: THE KENNEL MURDER CASE, THE DRAGON MURDER CASE, and CALLING PHILO VANCE. [TCM]

COPACABANA (1947)

With solid mainstream musical performers such as Dennis Morgan or Betty Grable, this B-level showbiz musical might have come off. But instead the more outsized and untamed talents of Groucho Marx and Carmen Miranda are confined by the average material, weak direction, and relatively low budget and it all comes off as a rather sad and dismal affair. Marx and Miranda are a struggling showbiz couple, not married but engaged for years (like Frank Sinatra and Vivian Blaine in GUYS AND DOLLS) and therefore, this being made under the constraints of the Production Code, living in two separate hotel rooms, and about to get evicted from them. Marx decides to retire from performing and serve as Miranda's agent, and he promptly gets her a job as a Latin songbird at the Copacabana. However, there's a hitch: the boss (Steve Cochran) wants a French singer as well, so in order not to blow his cover, Marx has Miranda pose as the veil-wearing Mademoiselle Fifi. Carmen is a success, but Fifi is an even bigger hit, and they must continue the charade to stay employed. Romantic entanglements arise: 1) Cochran is apparently in love with Fifi while, 2) his loyal secretary (Gloria Jean) pines away for Cochran and, 3) singer Andy Russell, who seems incapable of much passion for anyone, is mistaken for an admirer of the  secretary. Of course, after some lame attempts at farce and some tepid production numbers, all is righted at the fade out. In the beginning, I was embarrassed for Marx, who seems to know just how far he's sunk, but by the middle, he redeems himself a bit with a brief dual role number; Marx, as the agent, introduces Marx, in his 30's greasepaint-mustache persona, as a comic singer doing the amusing "Go West, Young Man." Miranda is fine; Cochran isn't bad, really, but he was better at the tough guy roles he did later in his career. Russell and Jean are bland as can be and the specialty acts sprinkled through the film are forgettable. Famous gossip columnist Earl Wilson has a cameo. [DVD]

DEVIL'S ISLAND (1939)

As regular readers of this blog know, I am a big fan of the Warner Brothers B-movie unit that cranked out dozens of unpretentious and entertaining low-budget films in the 30's and 40's. This, however, is one of their rare missteps. Usually, these movies which came in at 60 to 75 minutes sped along quite nicely, so that even if the movie had its weak moments, it was easy for the viewer to get past them because a funny or exciting scene was just around the corner. This one is just a smidge over an hour but feels much longer. The story has potential: Boris Karloff is a French brain surgeon who is sentenced to ten years of hard work on Devil's Island, the notorious penal colony in French Guiana in South America. His crime, operating on a mortally wounded criminal, is clearly based on the case of the real-life Dr. Mudd who served jail time for attending to John Wilkes Booth after Lincoln's assassination, and if the movie had delved into the moral ambiguities of such a situation, it might have been more interesting. However, after Karloff is sentenced, the movie becomes a rather static tale of men surviving the best they can under brutal conditions on the island, made worse by the cruel hand of overseer James Stephenson. When an already weak prisoner dies on work detail, Karloff is involved in a small uprising against the guards and the group is sentenced to death; however, when Stephenson's little daughter is badly hurt in an accident, he strikes a deal with Karloff to save their lives if Karloff will operate. Karloff does, but Stephenson reneges on his deal and executes one of the men. A daring escape follows, with the men helped by Stephenson's wife (Nedda Harrigan) who feels her husband has become too tyrannical. In the end, Karloff is saved and Stephenson is arrested on corruption charges. The story proceeds in predictable steps, with little humor and even less real excitement. Karloff and Stephenson are OK, but the supporting cast (which is often the saving grace of many a B-film) is completely unmemorable. The main musical theme is haunting the first five or six times it's heard, but by time 20, it's irritating. Not exactly terrible, but difficult to recommend. [TCM]

THE SPORT PARADE (1932)

This little-known film is built on the warhorse narrative frame of a romantic triangle between two close buddies and the girl who threatens to tear apart their friendship. However, the acting and the directorial style (not to mention the youthful pulchritude of leading man Joel McCrea) make this one stand out. McCrea and William Gargan play college friends and teammates on Dartmouth's winning football team. After graduation, Gargan goes the traditional career route and becomes a sports writer. McCrea, however, is seduced by promises of quick money (made by the comically shady Walter Catlett) to be garnered through endorsements and public appearances. Within two years, McCrea is out of work and reduced to hocking his gold football pin for a plane ticket to make a nostalgic visit to the latest Dartmouth game. The two old friends meet by accident and Gargan gets McCrea a job writing a joint column with him for the sports page. Soon, Marian Marsh, Gargan's unenthusiastic squeeze, gets the hots for McCrea and vice versa, which leads to a nasty split between the two pals. McCrea goes back to Catlett and forges a name in pro wrestling, but faces a dilemma when he is asked to take a dive with Gargan and Marsh in the audience. Will he do the right thing?

Given wrestling's reputation, it's hard to care much about the ethical fine points of the sport, but the climactic match is well shot and even works up a little suspense. In fact, the director, Dudley Murphy, best known for co-directing the avant-garde short "Ballet Mecanique" in 1924, makes the entire movie (nicely paced at just over an hour) fun to watch, with fluid camerawork and tricky shots abounding. McCrea, shirtless and provocatively posed in the boxing ring and in an early locker-room scene, is very good, as is Gargan, who isn't bad looking himself. Sturdy support is offered by Catlett, Skeets Gallagher as a sight-challenged photographer who accidentally gets the shot of a lifetime at a car race, and the always amusing Robert Benchley as an inept (and sometimes inebriated) sports announcer. The passive, wooden Marsh is the only disappointment in the cast. Film buffs will enjoy seeing Clarence Wilson and George Chandler in small roles. This early David Selznick production isn't much loved by the critics, but if it ever shows up again on Turner Classic, it's worth a look. [TCM]

THE DEVIL'S IN LOVE (1933)

An odd little Foreign Legion melodrama which might have had worked better with more exotic personalities in the lead roles. Victor Jory is a doctor at a Legion post; after he treats the much-despised commander (Robert Barrat) for heartburn, the commander is found dead the next morning and Jory is accused of murder. Jory's friend and fellow legionnaire David Manners knows that Jory couldn't have done it--and we know that Barrat's servant (J. Carrol Naish) did it--and when Jory is sentenced to death, Manners helps Jory escape. He winds up under an assumed name, taking care of outcasts at Fort Zamba, and falls in love with Loretta Young, niece of the local missionary. As it happens, Young is Manners' girlfriend, and things come to a head when police chief C. Henry Gordon figures out that Jory is a fugitive; Jory winds up back at Manners' fort, risking his freedom by treating the men for a deadly fever. Together, Manners and Jory trick the real killer into thinking he's dying of the fever so he'll confess to the crime. On top of this, the fort is under attack, and Young winds up in the midst of it all. There's a happy ending for Jory, a less happy one for Manners. Jory is not leading man material and, though he's not bad, he doesn't have the charm or appeal that someone like Douglas Fairbanks or Gary Cooper would have brought to the role. Young and Manners are fine, and it's nice to see Bela Lugosi in a non-horror role as a military prosecutor. Herbert Mundin is a comic relief sidekick, but I kept wishing Frank McHugh had the part instead. When you spend much of the movie imagining other actors in major roles, you know there's a problem. BTW, the title is meaningless. [FMC]

WANTED: JANE TURNER (1936)

No one could beat Warner Brothers as putting together solid, entertaining B-movies. This RKO entry helps prove that point. Lee Tracy and Gloria Stuart are postal service inspectors who are assigned to crack a case involving a group of mail thieves who have murdered a driver and stolen some money. The money is sent from New York to Los Angeles to a Jane Turner, in care of General Delivery; Tracy and Stuart track the letter and Stuart follows Turner when she picks it up, hoping she will lead them to the big boss (Paul Guilfoyle, father of the actor who plays Brass on TV's "C.S.I."), but it turns out that this Jane Turner is not a gangster's moll but a woman whose boyfriend's job is in trouble because of financial irregularities. She wants to use the money to save his job. Meanwhile, the fake Jane Turner shows up at the post office, and Tracy snags her and one of her accomplices. Eventually, the bad guys are led to the real Jane Turner's apartment where the relatively exciting climax occurs. I don't typically care much for Lee Tracy (an understatement), but he is not as offensively shrill and grating as usual here. Gloria Stuart is quite good (and quite lovely) in her role. The two are intended to have some screwballish appeal as a couple who, despite surface antagonism, are attracted to each other, and they have some fun moments, but overall, I don't really buy it. Had this been a Warners movie, the writing would have been a little stronger (and the sets wouldn't have looked so cheap) and it would have worked better overall. I like the throwing-in of two subplots. One involves the very funny vaudeville actress Irene Franklin as one member of a team of ladies who are running a fake mail-order bride scheme; Dick Elliot (the mayor of Mayberry in the early Andy Griffith shows) is a rustic sheepherder who shows up to make Franklin make good on her promise. The other plotline has Tracy turn all sensitive as he gives money to an old man who haunts General Delivery waiting for financial help from his son, who seems to have forgotten all about his dad. Barbara Pepper, who later played Doris Ziffel on "Green Acres," also appears. Not too bad, but considering it's only 65 minutes, it felt a little long. Still, I'm glad to have seen it for a chance to see Gloria Stuart--she's been so good in everything I've seen her in, I have to wonder why she got stuck in B-movies and supporting parts, until her comeback in TITANIC. [TCM]

A CHILD IS BORN (1939)

A B-movie remake of LIFE BEGINS. The plot is identical to the original, so I can essentially just paste in my review of the original movie and change the names of the actors: Gale Page presides over a ward of "problem" maternity cases. First and foremost is convicted killer Geraldine Fitzgerald, brought to the ward in handcuffs; her boyish husband, Jeffrey Lynn, is nervous (and not quite as hysterical as Eric Linden was in the original) and though the cops don't want him staying with her, he manages to sneak in a couple of times. Other expectant mothers in the ward include Spring Byington, an old pro at childbirth with six previous kids, and Gladys George as a crusty vaudeville performer who is expecting twins and doesn't want to keep them. Before she gives birth, she finds out she's been dumped by her partner. She puts gin in her "candy" box, gets drunk, and behaves callously toward Fitzgerald, but by the end of the movie, she gets all nurturing and decide to keep the kids. Fay Helm is a psycho case who wanders through the wards, stealing babies. Johnnie Davis is a nervous father sent off on a fool's errand (to buy a can of "Twilight Sleep") to keep him out of the nurses' hair. Others in the large supporting cast include Eve Arden as a nurse, Henry O'Neill and John Litel as doctors, Gloria Holden as a woman with a problem delivery, and Nanette Fabray & Johnny Downs as a young couple whose families disapprove of their marriage. As in the original, none of the mothers look at all pregnant (an onscreen taboo of the era, I guess). Fitzgerald and Lynn are a letdown as the leads, but George, Davis, Byington, and Arden are all fun to watch. Overall, I'd have to recommend the 1932 version over this one, though this is certainly tolerable. [TCM]

THE WOMAN ON PIER 13 (1949)
aka I MARRIED A COMMUNIST

A tight, well-made noir thriller which, despite having a bad critical reputation, is well worth watching. Robert Ryan is a former dock worker in San Francisco who has worked his way up to an executive position with a shipping company. After a two-week courtship, he has married Laraine Day; they know little about each other, though she had dated union leader (and pal of Ryan's) Richard Rober. Suddenly, shady figures from Ryan's past return to pull off some blackmail: Ryan, in his youth, was a Communist and apparently was responsible for the death of a worker during a strike. Commie bigshot Thomas Gomez threatens to reveal Ryan's past unless he goes along with a scheme to foment unrest among the shipworkers and start a crippling strike. More pressure is applied by Ryan's former lover, Janis Carter, who still has a thing for him but goes after Day's young brother (John Agar), not only getting him in the sack but also slowly turning him into a Communist. Keeping all this secret from Day, Ryan agrees to help and a strike is eventually called, but when Agar is killed and Day threatened, Ryan sacrifices himself to bring the Commies down. The anti-Communist propaganda is so ludicrous it cancels itself out and the film is much more fun if you read Gomez as a more typical film noir sadistic gangster. Ryan is good and once Day has something to do (in the last 15 minutes), she's fine as well. However, the best performances come from two supporting players. William Talman is a thug killer hired by Gomez who, in a great scene, sends stoolie Paul Guilfoyle to a watery death and later goes after Day. The real find here is Janis Carter, who mostly made B-movies and retired from movies just five years later. She is excellent, showing strong A-movie potential as the icy blonde bad girl. When she's on screen, you pretty much ignore everyone else. The film is short, so we don’t get as much character development as I'd like, and the ending is quick and perfunctory, but the noirish visual elements are nicely done by director Robert Stevenson, best known for a string of live-action Disney films in the 50's and 60's (most notably MARY POPPINS). The official release title (PIER 13) doesn’t really mean anything; in this case, the more sensational title actually better describes the film. Highly recommended. [TCM]